Chapter I: The Apocalypse
His name was Rache Bartmoss. Everyone knows WHO destroyed the first Net. The real question is WHY. NetWatch branded him a criminal and outlaw. The media called him a madman. Is either label correct? You be the judge. Below is a previously unpublished letter which Bartmoss put out just before the release of R.A.B.I.D.S. Why has this document only now just emerged? Well... Someone out there did not want you, my dear readers, to ever lay eyes on it. All the more reason to take a deep dive into the information available to us.
-- Maria Jimenez
The first Net was supposed save us. It would serve as a platform for those without a voice. It would offer unlimited knowledge to those who hungered for it. It would bring a fractured humanity closer together than ever before in our history. But these hopes were hollow. False.
The Net spread its tendrils around the globe faster than anyone could have predicted. Before anyone could even consider the full range of consequences. This "information superhighway" turned out to be our path straight to hell. We were robbed of our privacy, deprived of our free will, stripped of our dignity.
It was supposed to save us, but now even the Net itself cannot be saved. It was molded by the corps, with sharp edges, spikes and traps at every corner. Think of the Net as a stream of water that flows gently into our minds... before freezing, swelling, and destroying us from the inside out. But remember this about ice – as hard as it may be, it's surprisingly brittle. One well-placed strike and it shatters into a million tiny pieces. Watch out today and you'll see just what I mean.
Rache Bartmoss
